Cottage Cheese Bajji

Was craving for something nice to eat, opened the refrigerator door, stood infront of it for a long time hoping to find something nice in some corner, but nope. Since my mom is here, she empties it and keeps things clean and tidy. I found cottage cheese box that we got from the store the other day and thought of making these bajjis. This is the second time I made them and my mom loved these instantly. They are crispy from outside and soft from inside and taste sour.

To make these you need..

Cottage Cheese

Maida

Green Chillies

Coriander

Curry Leaves

Jeera

Onion

Salt

Take Cottage Cheese in a bowl. Add chopped green chillies, coriander, curry leaves, jeera, onion, salt and keep adding maida until the dough come together and forms like a bajji dough.

Take little dough at a time and form into disc shapes and deep fry in oil. Remove and serve hot with Coffee or Tea.

Palak & Cottage Cheese Burji

Follow the same procedure as Cottage Cheese Burji but add Palak after adding onions.

Cottage Cheese Bhurji

Cottage Cheese has good amount of protein, so I am using that at least once in a day these days. I guess you will see more recipes of this in the coming days.

Instead of Paneer for the bhurji, I added Cottage Cheese to see how that tastes, this tasted similar but a little sour as I have used 2% fat. Next time I will try it with full fat, may be it will taste little sweeter. But overall result, I liked it, I ate this in the restaurants, they add fresh lime juice to it once it is done and without adding that I got the sour taste naturally.

You need…

1 cup of cottage cheese
1 medium, onion, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped into big chunks. *
2 green chillies, chopped
½ tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tbsp oil.
½ tsp garam masala (optional)
A pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
coriander for garnishing

1. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and fry for 2 minutes. Do not brown them, just cook them till tender.
2. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a minute.
3. Add tomato chunks, green chillies, and cook them till done for 1 or 2 minutes.
4. Add turmeric, salt, chilli powder, garam masala and mix.
5. Reduce flame and add cottage cheese, garam masala and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
6. Garnish with coriander.
   

Serve hot with chapattis.

* Do not use juicy tomatoes as the curry will become soggy and mushy and if you want the gravy, the milk from the cottage cheese is just enough for that.

Masoor Dal Soup

Weather has been very unusual at this time of the year. There were scattered thunderstorms in the evening and rain all the night for the last two days. But, it was very hot all afternoon. Then we both craved to eat something hot, and something filling. I thought of making some soup to go with the bread that has been lying in the refrigerator from long.

I tried with Masoor Dal/Red gram this time and improvised it to make it better. I also added Cottage Cheese to this recipe to get that creamy and milky taste.

You need…

2 cups Masoor dal/Red gram dal
1 medium onion, chopped into big chunks
1 big tomato
½ cup cottage cheese
1 tsp chilli powder
½ tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
½ tsp black pepper powder
2 tbsp shredded coconut or coconut milk
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
coriander for garnishing

1. Put tomato and onion in a bowl, add some water and microwave it for 3 mins. Check in between as tomato splits all over the microwave if kept for a long time.
2. Boil the dal with enough water till al-dente. Don’t make them too soft.
3. Remove outer skin from tomato and blend onion, tomato and half of cooked dal.
4. Add the blended mixture to the dal and continue boiling.
5. Add spices like bay leaf, cumin, coriander, pepper, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Also add coconut at this point.
6. Finally add cottage cheese and boil for 5 mins or until you get the thickness you desire.
   

Remove bay leaf and serve hot. I served with whole wheat garlic bread. I made garlic spread while the soup was boiling. I also added a piece of garlic to the soup for some garlicky taste.

To make Garlic Spread:

Take an oven safe bowl, put garlic pods with butter or olive oil. Add some Italian seasoning or all dried herbs and keep the bowl covered tightly in the toaster oven for 5-10 mins. Crush the garlic and mix. Apply to the bread before serving.

PS: this is my own version of soup and you can improvise it the way you want.